Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1
A Method of and Device for Producing Energy
The invention refers to a method of producing heat
energy through a partia:l.l.y self-sustaining process using oil
and water, and to a de-;ri.ce .for carrying out the method.
It is known tc> use oil as a heat vehicle in heat
exchangers for steam production. 'Thus, US-A-2222575
describes cooling of hot oil by direct contact of the oil
with cooling water whi;:h evaporizes immediately, generating
steam for use. The hot: oil is pumped into a chamber with a
temperature of approximately 343°C and water is sprayed over
its surface from a plurality of nozzles. The reaction is
that the water evapori~.~e~s, thereby cc>oling the oil which is
then replaced by new, hc~t. o:il. Also, US-A-4164202 describes
cooling of hot oil: the hot oil (about 350°C) and water are
both introduced into a ~~~essel and l~~ot.h are sprayed in little
droplets in the interic:w of the vessel so that the droplets
meet, whereby the water evapori.zes and the oil, cooled to
some extent, falls down and collects at the bottom. US-A-
4207840 describes a stc::am generator comprising a bath of oil
in a spherical vessel wt-rich is permanently heated from
below, e.g. by a wood cc~mbustion. Fc>r generating steam,
water is injected into 1_.he heated oil. under the oil level,
the water in intimate contact with the heated oil
evaporizing and rising i~o the surface of the oil from which
the steam further rises and is discharged from the spherical
vessel. The oil itself= does not take part in producing, but
only in transporting tine heat energy.
The invention aims at producing heat energy using
oil and water, wherein a much higher heat can be gained and
a much higher temperati.zre is obtained in a technically
exploitable manner than when anly burning the oil. For the
method of the inventions a reaction vessel is used
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containing a reaction chamber which includes a controllable
supply line connected 1=c:~ a supply of oil, a source of heat
energy, at least one input nozzle connected to a supply of
water and of air and an output flue. The method comprises
the steps of: admitting oil into the chamber through the
controllable supply line up to a level below the connection
point of any input nozzle; applying energy to the oil to
preheat the oil to a temperature slightly less than the
ignition point of the c:ol used; continuously spraying a
mixture of water and a.:i_r. supplied E~rom the supply of water
and air over the surface of the preheated oil from at least
one of the input nozzli~(s); discon~.ir.vaing the application of
heat energy to the oil after a reaction between the oil, air
and water has begun; maintaining the level of the oil above
a minimum level for as long as it is desired to maintain the
reaction by adding oil through the controllable supply line;
and collecting heat enc-~r_gy discharged from the reaction
chamber through the out~~~~ut flue. Thus, in short, in a
continuous process, wage-.r is contacted with the oil, which
beforehand has been heated to a temperature that depends on
the nature of the respecaive oil but .in any case is more
than 250°C, and the process is made t.o take place in a
vessel into which air is admitted. By such handling, an
eruption of heat is caused which is comparable to an
enormous and very hot t=lame-like phenomenon. This means
that an extremely stronc,. combustion with heat release takes
place, and the heat cari be collected for some industrial
purpose.
It is important to point out that at the beginning
of the process the temperature of the oil normally should be
lower than that of sel= combustion, the oil has not to burn
before the contact with the water: it. is the contact with
water that causes the ~:>e~ginning of the reaction. It is
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possible that some oils havf=_ to be heated under a higher
pressure than the atmos~:~herical, to t.~:~e aim of obtaining the
necessary temperature without combustion before the contact
between oil and water.
The method h<3v~ proved very effective since, in the
special chamber, the water is sprayed over the upper surface
of the hot oil, which ->:~e~f_'orehand h;~s been heated e.g.
electrically, which heai:.ing can be terminated upon the
beginning of the process, that Keeps t:he oil sufficiently hot
by itself in spite of a:;he continuovas introducing of cold
water (at 10 to 20°C). An ordinary oil burner supplied with
water instead of oil can be used for spraying water and
introducing air into the' vesse.L.
The oil to bE~~ used for the purpose is preferably a
fat oil, such as fat animal or. fat vegetable oil. Vegetable
oil has proved particu=warly effective, the necessary
starting temperature in such case being about 310°C. But
also light vegetable o:~.l. has been proved to be successful.
The starting temperature, on the other hand, should not be
too high so that the o:i:l. may not be chemically disintegrated
beforehand.
For a rough process control-, the relation of the
oil to the water in the vessel should be approximately 40:60
per weight, a relation which, however, can be bettered, i.e.
using less oil, if the ~>rocess parameters such as the supply
with oil, water and ai:r and the output-jet diameter are
finely, particularly electronically, controlled.
The use of sea water is possible and could even
increase the performance of the system. For the chamber, a
vessel conically tapering to a top opening is preferred.
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A feasibility study for the use of this basic
process in endothermic type engines has been carried out
with entirely satisfyiru:~ parameters and the loss in the
energy transformation process can ~>e maintained with minimum
values. The final app:~_i.ances can be very wide ranging from
planes, rockets, helicon>ters, hover.crafts, tanks, automobile
cars, boats and conveyance means or any other appliance
related to the combust:ic>n process, while the basic process
can be applied, as des;~x~ibed, to heating systems for home
and industry as well as burning furnaces for industry
processes.
The danger oa a possible explosion has been
completely eliminated., :wince the single components are not
inflammable until the precise starting conditions of the
process are reached.
In this new .innovative process there is also
present a very low level. of NO;~, generally no more than 8-10
ppm in the combustion, while in general this level is much
higher likely no less than 50 ppm.
According to ~~nother aspect, a device for carrying
out the inventive proce_~s comprises a reaction vessel
containing a reaction chamber; first means for providing a
controllable supply of r>i_1 to the reaction chamber; second
means for providing a ~~r_>ntrollable supply of water and dir
to the reaction chamber; third means for providing heat to
the bottom of the react:i_on chamber; and fourth means for
collecting and discha.rg:i_ng the heat energy generated,
wherein the reaction chamber communicates with a flue which
opens into a furnace adapted for evaluating the produced
heat.
The method of the invention can be used primarily
to generate heat energy, and secandarily to supply with
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driving energy an engine such as a turbo-engine or an
endothermic engine.
Further deta.il_s, advantages and developments of
the invention will be seen :from the following description of
5 preferred embodiments <:~rid of an equipment to carry out the
method, with reference t:o the enclosed drawings.
Fig. 1 shows a heating furnace set equipped to
exploit the method of the invention;
Figs. 2 and :3 show schematic elevational sections
through reactor vessels also useable in the equipment for
carrying out the invention.
The equipment of fig. 1 comprises a furnace 1
having an exhaust flue r'., e.g. a furnace as used for a
boiler or for a heating, and a usual burner 3 of the type
usually used to spray heating oil and air into the furnace.
The burner 3 is connected to a tank ~1 which may be a tank
like a usual oil tank .as used for heating boilers, and i_s
equipped with a nozzle 'i sputting off the material the
burner 3 receives from l:ank 4.
In the described equipment, the burner 3 is not
directly connected to the furnace 1 but is connected to a
reaction vessel 11 containing a react:ion chamber 12 into
which a supply line 13 opens which comes, vi.a a control
valve 14, from a further tank 15.
The vessel 11,. and thus also the chamber 12, is
comically shaped tapering towards its upper end which opens
into some sort of a flue 16 ending as a jet 17 into the
furnace 1. The flue 16 contains a f:Lap valve 18.
At the bottom of the vesse:L 11, electric heatv~ng
wires 23 connected to a (not shown] power source are
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arranged. Alternatively, a gas burner or another heating
facility may be provided.
For carrying out the invention, the tank 4 is
filled with water and the tank 15 is filled with a vegetable
oil. According to a particular wary of carrying out the
method, the
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vegetable oil may be a usual cooking oil. Under control of the valve 14, a
limited
amount of the oil is allowed to pass into the vessel 1 i, which in the
depicted arrange-
ment happens by gravity, in other arrangements by a pump. In the vessel 11, an
amount
of oil 24 is collected up to a level of e.g. 3 to 5 mm, so as to cover the
heating wires
23. The amount of oil 34 in the vessel is heated to a temperature of approx.
330° C, the
minimum for the used oil being 300°. A thermometer 2~ serves for
observing the
temperature. If vegetable oil is used, a lot of little blue flames can be seen
on the
surface of the oil ?4 collected in the chamber 12 upon reaching the starting
temperature.
Then, the burner 3 is started to spray water over the surface of the oil ?4,
at the same
time supplying some air into the chamber 12. The water contacts the heated oil
and
leads to a very violent reaction with the consequence of an eruption of very
hot material
being discharged from the jet 17. The eruption consists of a flame-like bulb
29 of a
white or blue glowing luminescent gas having a temperature of between 1200 and
?000° C, developing out of some sort of a non-luminant stem 30 of some
limited length,
e.g. 20 to 50 mm, which appears immediately behind the jet 17. The existence
of stem
30 depends on the control and regulation of the arrangement.
For experimental purpose, a gas analyser 31 is inserted into the exhaust flue
2. By
means of the gas analyzer 31, it has been found out that the process exhaust
gas flow
2 o causes a minimum of pollution, typically 5 to 10 ppm for CO and 10 to 11
ppm for
NOx, in the case of a ratio water:oil = 6:4.
As concerns the continued reaction, the power supply for the heating wires 23
may be
switched off since the reaction itself causes sufttcient heat to keep the oil
hot and to
heat the further supply of oil coming from the tank 1~.
Though it is supposed that the water is the main enemy source, there is some
consump-
tion of oil. It is assumed that by a thorough control of the equipment, i.e.
of the water
and air supply by the burner 3 and of the valves 14 and 18, the consumption of
oil with
3 0 relation to water can be made to be approx. 1 to 9. The optimal process
parameters will
have to be found out by tests. In case of manual control and without much
ambition to
obtain the optimum, the percentage of oil has to be selected higher, e.g.
oil:water = 4:6
per weight. The critical point is keeping the temperature of the oil ?4 in the
vessel 11
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above the minimum. The flap valve 18 which can also have a different valve con-
swction assists to keep the temperature within. vessel 11 at a value of about
320' C. It
is possible to voluntarily stop the process by closing the valve 14; in doing
so, the
relative quantity of water continuously added will cool the reaction chamber
below the
starting temperature whereby the process is stopped. For an automatic control
of the
process, it will be necessary to continuously measure the temperature of the
oil ~4 in
vessel 11 and in dependency of this temperature to control the supply with oil
and water
as well as with the air supplied by the burner.
The level of the oil 24 in chamber 12 should be maintained to a minimum of 3
to 4 mrr~
to be sure that the process will continue; however, aiso a level of 1 mm of
oil has been
found working, however, with the risk of a sudden stop.
The reaction vessel 11 in Fig. I is supposed to be shaped as a truncated cone.
This is
not absolutely necessary, alternative possibilities would be e.j. a truncated
pyramid or,
though less preferable, a cylinder.
Fib. 2 shows a shape of the vessel 11 combined of a cylinder and a cone. The
con-
struction is different from the construction of Fib. 1 in that a plurality of
nozzels ~ exist
which spray alltogether onto the level of the oil.
In Fia. 3, there are provided one nozzel 5 and a separate air supply 32 above
the level
of oil ?4 into the chamber 12 in vessel 11, which chamber in this case is
combined of
a parallelepiped and a pyramid.
According to Fig. 3, there are no electric heating wires 23 like in FiQ.s 1
and 2,.but for
the initial heating of the oil, a gas flame 33 is used.
The size of vessel 11 is to. be designed depending on the heating power. More
particu- . --
larly; it is recommended to dimension the vessel 11 directly proportional to
the desired
heating power. For example, in the arrangement of Fig. l, for a heating power
of the
furnace and the burner of 400.000 1/h, the base diameter of the conical vessel
shall be
200 to 2~0 mm. Larger diameters will lead to a higher heating power but at the
same
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time to lamer consumptions while smaller diameters will produce less heat but
will lead
to lower consumption of the oil and water. The consumption is directly
proportional to
the diameter of the vessel 11 or of the chamber 12 therein. The cone shape has
the
advantage of reflecting part of the generated heat back to the oil 24 so as to
easier keep
it hot. Also little drops of the ~ water-oil mixture thrown around in the
chamber 12 are
reflected by such cone shape. It has to be taken into consideration that a too
large size
of the jets could possibly reduce the process temperature below the process
activation
temperature of the system which is about 300° C, in which case the
process will be
stopped.
l0
Anyhow, due to the relation between diameter and power, which relation may be
based
on the dissociation volume of the water involved, it is possible to
expezimentally
determine the exact size of the vessel 11 for different calorimetric
potentials of different
burners and furnaces.
When starting the process, as mentioned, the oil quantity in vessel 11 has to
be heated
to e.g. 3?0° C. This temperature is slightly lower than the temperature
of flammability of
the oil, which represents a safety point because the oil can be stored safely
without any
problem or cooling necessity. As mentioned, the temperature depends on the oil
used.
The shown embodiments describe the use of the process for heating purposes. Of
course,
the generation of heat energy can also be exploited in different manner, e.g.
for driving
an engine such as a hot air engine or also standard engines or turbines
modified for the
purpose. .
The following examples show possible applications:
The method can be used with a usual turbine in the following way. a turbine
has burners
with combustion chambers on the external toroidal diameter and in this case
the~~systern
can be easily applied with ?reat advantage, taking in consideration the
usually very high
fuel consumption of such machines with an high NOx output in the exhaust uses.
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A diesel engine can be modified like this:
- two injection pumps, one for the oil, one for the water (air comes in the
intake
manifold as standard engines);
- mod'ification of pump timing: '
5 second pump injects water after few degrees after maximum hei?ht of the
piston
exactly a fraction of time after
combustion;
- the engine mua't be ~sitioned on a reverse basis 180', i.e. the crankshaft
is placed
above of the pistons. This reverse position is required to allow a formation
of a
10 level of oiI at the basis of the reversed cylinder. ?his level must be of
the quantity
necessary in the burning cycle because a coo lar;e quantity will raise
excessively
the compression ratio. This set up embodiment mill work also for a gasoline
injected en;ine.
